Nail

Artist: Scraping Foetus off the Wheel
Label: Thirsty Ear
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 700435700826
EAN: 0700435700826
ASIN: B0000057NM

Release Date: 1995-05-23

Nail

Related Categories:

Hardcore & Punk

Alt Industrial

Post-Punk

| New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Experimental Rock

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Theme from Pigdom Come
Throne of Agony
!
Pigswill
Descent into the Inferno
Enter the Exterminator
Di-1-9026
Overture from Pigdom Come
Private War
Anything

Similar Items:

Hole
Deaf
Gash
Flow
Thaw

Customer Reviews:

Scraping foetus off the wheel.......2005-11-03

Nail (1985), perhaps his masterpiece, was even more powerful, and in an "evil" way. Every single sound is exaggerated, overdone, dramatized. This album's songs are poems carved with a jack-hammer into the marble of a gravestone. A touch of retro` attitude (not too different from Frank Zappa's ventures into orchestral and jazz music) is drowned into magniloquent, sinister, gloomy, tragic, terrifying industrial "symphonies". But, ultimately, this was also a heartbreaking cry of grief that soars in a landscape of desolation and depravation.

Thirlwell's sick and twisted masterpiece.......2004-11-15

This is the follow up album to HOLE, an excellent album in it's own right, but after listening to this, it seems that he was merely getting a running start for NAIL, his best album. Thirlwell comes off as a demented and evil Tom Waits, telling sordid stories of hell, hatred, suffering and misogyny. These tales are told with an angry delivery, tempered with a sense of humor that is, well, just WRONG, but right...

That sense of humor is what sets him apart from artists that came along later. They had the anger, but they lacked the humor. Mr. Thirlwell can say the most horrendous things, but by using a twist of phrase (musical or lyrical) he sets you giggling, albeit guiltily. But be warned, there's some truly offensive stuff here. It's not for the faint of heart, but for the brave and open minded there's an opportunity to hear a true pioneer, a man with talent that took real risks nearly *gulp* twenty years ago...

a descent into an inferno..........2003-01-25

but an inferno full of interesting things.

For those who don't know, Foetus is Jim Thirlwell, a very important remixer who has worked with bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Front 242, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Einsturzende Neubauten, among others.

I must admit that, though I have known him as a remixer for almost 10 years now, that is, since I listened to a remix he did of Religion by Front 242, as an independent musician I just know him for 2 or 3 months.

Now, when I listened to this album I realised I had committed a mistake by not having paid him attention earlier.

Foetus denies to be considered "industrial". I'm not going to make a speech about my disliking labels and all that 'cos it would bore you, but I'll just tell you that Foetus IS industrial...AND LOTS OF MORE THINGS. When you listen to Foetus, and especially to this album and the previous ones, you realise of some things:

1. That the amazing band Einsturzende Neubauten (probably my second favourite band, just after The Legendary Pink Dots) were not alone in their concept of music made by inventing ayny instrument you can imagine.

2. That Thirlwell must listen to a lot of diverse music and he mixes all those influences in his records: industrial, jazz, lounge, classical, pop, punk...

3. That Foetus is an agressive band with a lot of sense of humour.

My favourite songs are:

- 'The Throne of Agony', where Foetus shows all his potentials, including agressiveness and sense of melody in the same packet.

-'Pigswill', where Foetus shows that Einsturzende Neubauten concept of noisy music, both descendants of Can's Tago Mago.

- 'Descent into the Inferno', a song which starts very calm, a sort of industrial blues which shows us the sensitive side of Foetus, but as it progresses everything starts to get more and more "punk-ish"

- 'Enter the Exterminator', where again the Einsturzende Neubauten similarities are obvious. More whispered than screamed.

- 'Anything', another good industrial song.

I used to be a pure industrial lover. Years ago I only listened to bands such as Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, etc. Now I consider some (not all, of course)of those bands are too monolythical. Their voices (especially FLA's, Wumpscut's, etc) are distorted and lack humanity.
Foetus' voice is at first sight similar. But when you get used to his raw singing, you start to observe that he does a lot of things with his voice. He's more a sort of Nick Cave singer.

Nail is probably his best album. If you like it, get 'Hole', the previous album. You'll find there how Foetus dares even to parody Beach Boys.

One last thing. If you have never listened to Foetus, don't get scared by its name. I also thought this was going to be just another pseudo-gothic band with bad taste. (see Nosferatu, for example) But you'll get a band that should deserve more recognition.

regarding the musical range of Foetus.......2002-05-23

This is one of Foetus's most interesting cd's, because it's so extremely totally different from Foetus releases such as GASH or THAW or FLOW, music people know him through most now. The spine of NAIL might be the 2 songs with soft synth classical instrumentation that feel like a warm breeze on your face (a warm breeze concealing a severe psychotic episode?). Another song that serves to establish the tone of the album, with a title that seems like more of a stratagem than anything else, is Throne of Agony. It's easily one of the most fun, accessible songs Foetus has ever released. In the course of the cd, of course, there's other experimentation that goes in more different directions. He does a little gritty noise that could almost be early Einsturzende Neubauten if not for the string sections. He does some weird electronic things I don't know how to describe except by assuring you that they don't sound like any kind of noise but are music. After all this, & a delightful short instrumental classical reprise, the cd ends with 2 songs that go together like an arch. They slam you back down into the world of possibly by repeating angrily, carnally, "I can do any goddamn thing I want! Anything!" The music that ends the cd is no more than a very heavy slam of cold metallic percussion that repeats.

Thirwell at his prime.......2001-05-29

This album exhibts the true talent of Thirwell, mixing the swing stabs that have made Thirwell infamous as well as the voice of an electric razor. This album contains many of the classic Foetus songs such as DI 19028 (Manson's prisoner number for those of you that want to cross reference that much) to Decent into the Inferno.

While listening to a couple of the tracks off of this album the person that was listening to it with me discribed it as "Cherry Poppin' Daddies" meets Metalica, it wasn't the best description that I have ever heard made of Thirwell's talented vocal and musical orcastration, but was at least a well humoring one to say the least.

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